I also wonder why is it that so many of the movies and books that are detective stories are also the most aesthetically interesting? From Hollywood noirs to horror movies like The Shining [1980].

Today, MTV doesn't play videos anymore, but YouTube certainly has become the next MTV.

There seem to be two ways of generating interest from the reader: withholding information or by telling the reader on the first page exactly what's going to happen.

I was a very scared child.

There is a value to moving more slowly through a story.

I had lived in New York since 1996, sometimes in the worst neighborhoods, without even locking my door half the time.

Both my parents were big readers. My dad liked more macho adventure books like Shogun or spy novels. My mother reads murder mysteries. In fact, so does her mother, my grandma.